The present invention relates to component sets that are installed at selected intervals along the lengths of the just-below-floor-level spaces to define channels and passageways that are known in the art as “utility trenches,” wherein lengthy reaches of tubular members such as pipes, tubes and conduits extend for ducting, carrying and supplying such necessities as compressed air, pressurized fluids, gases used for medical and manufacturing purposes, and exhaust gases, as well as vacuum, refrigeration and air conditioning lines, fiber optic cables, and electrical supply, signal, data and communication cables, and the like.
More particularly, the present invention relates to easily assembled sets of relatively inexpensive components that are well suited not only to aid in the formation of utility trenches during the pouring of concrete floors that embed connected lengths of utility trench sections in the concrete floors at just-below-floor-level heights, but that also are well suited to underlie and support such pipes, tubes and conduits as are positioned in the utility trenches. Further, the component sets, when assembled and installed at selected intervals along the lengths of utility trenches, provide very versatile arrays of attachment points for conventional, commercially available pipe clamp brackets that give long-term support for such pipes, tubes and conduits as are installed in and may need to be added to utility trenches.
During the construction of commercial and industrial facilities, a common practice prior the pouring of concrete to form floors that are to include just-below-floor-level utility trenches, is to properly position upstanding sheet metal panels that will become the sidewalls of utility trenches wherein pipes, tubes and conduits will extend from place to place for carrying fluids, wires, cables and the like. To hasten and simplify the positioning of utility trench side panels, prefabricated sections that have appropriately spaced-apart, parallel-extending, sheet metal side panels are arranged end-to-end, and are bolted together, with uppermost edges of the sheet metal side panels being supported to extend precisely at a level chosen for the top surface of a soon-to-be-poured concrete floor. Each of the prefabricated sections has component sets installed between its upstanding side panels to maintain a desired spacing between the side panels.
When concrete is poured to form the floor, the freshly poured concrete is fed along and against exterior surfaces of the sheet metal side panels. If the component sets installed between the side panels permit the side panels to shift or to bulge inwardly as concrete is poured along exterior surfaces of the side panels, the resulting utility trenches will be improperly formed, which can complicate and delay the eventual installation of pipes, tubes and conduits therein.
When the freshly poured concrete has set sufficiently to retain the upstanding sheet metal side panels securely in position, it is common practice to remove from within the newly-formed utility trenches some of the parts and pieces that defined the sets of components which were originally installed in the prefabricated sections. If all of these parts and pieces are left in place, they will obstruct and delay the installation of pipes, tubes and conduits in the utility trenches. However, such parts and pieces of the component sets as are permitted to remain in the utility trench sections are sometimes connected to when pipe clamp brackets and other structures are installed to position and support the lengthy reaches and runs of pipes, tubes and conduits that are eventually installed in the utility trenches.
Although components of a variety of types have been proposed for installation in prefabricated sections of utility trenches, such components as are known and proposed to date have frequently underperformed in maintaining substantially parallel-extending relationships between sheet metal side panels. Moreover, known and proposed components have tended to be unduly expensive, unduly complex to work with, and have almost universally lacked a much needed degree of versatility in permitting pipes, tubes and conduits of a wide range of types and sizes to be positioned and securely supported in utility trench passageways, and in permitting pipes, tubes and conduits to be added to existing utility trench installations.
One specific problem that has led to dissatisfaction with existing component sets installed in utility trenches has been the failure of connections that attach the ends of horizontal crossbars that underlie and support pipes, tubes and conduits to uprights. The massive weight that is often imposed on such crossbars by the weight of heavy pipes, tubes and conduits, and by the weight of the fluids or electrical supply cables and the like contained in the pipes, tubes and components is sometimes so significant that the connections attaching opposite ends of crossbars to supporting uprights are so strained as to permit slippage, resulting in unacceptable sagging of pipes, tubes and conduits that need to be supported at the carefully selected heights at which the crossbars were originally installed.
Another specific problem that has led to dissatisfaction with existing component sets has been the difficulties caused by such complex and unwieldy connections as have been used to attach the ends of such horizontal-extending crossbars as may underlie and support the cover plates of utility trenches to opposed sidewalls of the trenches. Because the crossbars that underlie and support cover plates often must be removed and eventually reinstalled each time that a pipe, tube or conduit needs to be added to an existing utility trench, the connections that support opposite ends of such crossbars need to permit easy release and reinstallation of the crossbars.
Still another problem that plagues existing sets of support components installed at intervals along utility trenches is their failure of versatility in providing for new lengths of pipes, tubes and conduits to be added to existing utility trenches. In factories and manufacturing facilities, it sometimes seems as though a new length of electrical conduit or a new water line needs to be added to an existing utility trench almost as soon as the trench has been closed after installing the last addition thereto of a new electrical conduit or water line. Considerable delays and added expense are incurred when it is observed that a utility trench has adequate room to accommodate a needed addition, but the existing support components in the utility trench cannot accommodate the needed addition—thus new support components must be engineered and installed before a new pipe, tube or conduit can be added to the existing utility trench.
In short, a long-standing need has existed for a highly versatile set of easy-to-assemble, relatively inexpensive and truly versatile components that are not only well-suited to be positioned at spaced intervals along the lengths of utility trenches for maintaining substantially parallel-extending relationships between the upstanding sheet metal side panels during the pouring of a concrete floors that embed utility trench sections, but also for providing structures that are well-suited to underlie and support lengthy runs of the pipes, tubes and conduits that are installed in newly formed utility trenches, and that may need to be added to existing utility trenches.